Climate change in the Catalan Pyrenees intersects with socioeconomic factors to shape crop diversity and management

Most studies on climate change’s impacts on agriculture focus on modeling techniques based on large-scale meteorological data, while few have investigated how farmer’s perception of climate change’s impacts can affect crop diversity and crop management practices, especially in industrialized contexts. To fill this gap, we conducted 24 semi-structured interviews in a study site located in the Catalan Pyrenees. Our results show for the first time in an industrialized context that farmers perceive multiple interrelated climate change impacts on local agroecosystems. For instance, snowfall and freeze events have decreased, which respondents associated with the increase of pests and diseases affecting both wild flora and cultivated plants. Similarly, changes in precipitation patterns lead to a perceived decrease in useful rain for agriculture. Farmers are also reporting changes in their management practices, such as increased irrigation or use of pesticides, which respond to these climatic factors but also to changes in the crops that are cultivated. Crop diversity is in decline in the area both at the species and landrace levels, especially in rainfed fields. This is mainly driven by socioeconomic factors such as agricultural abandonment or access to commercial seeds, although climate change factors such as increased pests or decreased rainfall can have an impact. Despite the crop diversity losses found, many landraces have been maintained, mainly due to their cultural value, and also new crop species have been introduced, which are now viable due to the increase in temperature. Although we focused on a specific case study, we found several trends that are also present in other contexts. Therefore, the results of this research are relevant at a global scale since they show that climate change is affecting mountain agroecosystems in industrialized contexts and may affect more drastically both agrobiodiversity and crop management practices in agroecosystems worldwide. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13593-022-00806-3.


Data collection guidelines
The LICCI data collection protocols (https://licci.eu/research-tools/) will be adapted to this specific research, which will be conducted in four sites with mountain agroecosystems: Alpujarra Granadina (Sierra Nevada), Vall de Cardòs (Pyrenees), Cabrales (Picos de Europa), and Sierra Norte (Sierra de Guadarrama). These sites have been selected because of their relative isolation (leading to better preserved traditional knowledge systems) and the fact that farmer communities in those sites have had long-term interactions with the environment.
Data will be collected using interviews and focus groups in 2-3 relatively homogeneous villages per site. For each site, 20-25 in-depth interviews will be conducted following two different sample strategies that will lead to two different sample groups.
Sample #1 (5-6 interviewees per site, 2-3 per village) will be selected by purposeful sampling, targeting older farmers that have had a continuous relationship with the local environment and have had experience with a diversity of agroecosystems in the area (e.g. pastures, homegardens, forestrysystems).
Sample #2 (15-20 interviewees per site, 5-7 per village) will be selected by quota sampling, targeting relatively elder farmers with a significant dedication to the homegarden agroecosystem (at least 25 years managing a homegarden). Age and gender quotas were deigned to include equal representation of male and female interviewees and equal representation of the following age groups: 60-70 years old, 70-80 years old, elder than 80 years old.
We will also conduct 2-3 focus groups (1 per village). Attendants to the focus groups will be sampled following purposeful sampling, targeting elder farmers with a continuous and significant dedication to agriculture, and specifically to home gardening.
If the villages in a given site have very few farmers, more than three villages can be sampled. Moreover, the sampled farmers can have other income-generating activities besides agriculture (animal husbandry, wage work, pensions etc.), but they should be acquainted sufficiently with the local cropping systems (have an agricultural past or have lived in the area long enough).
In the interviews to sample #1, we will ask open-ended questions focusing on: 1) The perceived local indicators of climate change impacts (LICCI) in the site a. We will explore the environmental changes the interviewee has noticed in the local ecosystem with a focus on those affecting the agroecosystems. To obtain this information we will use a benchmark (e.g., since you were young) and ask specifically if they noticed changes in a) the seasons, temperature, rain, wind, storms (atmospheric system); b) the soil, water, terraces/land, snow (physical system), c) the crops, livestock, pastures, trees, birds, insects, diseases (biological system). This will be done keeping the LICCI tree in mind (https://licci.eu/ressources/licci-classes/index.html; see Reyes-García et al. 2020) and trying to encourage people to go to more precise levels of the tree and directions (e.g., "increase/decrease in mean temperature" instead of "change in temperature"). We will avoid using the term climate change and ask about the moment in time when the change happened/was noticed in order to have a more specific timeline of events.
2) The cropping systems and crop management practices in the village a. We will explore the different types of cropping systems or cultivated fields that were present in the village and the management practices that were used in the homegardens.
b. We will explore how these cropping systems and practices have changed through time.
c. We will explore if people link those changes to the previously reported LICCI (e.g., changes in soil, water, landscape, plants, insects, diseases…). With a special focus on how homegarden management practices have changed to adapt to the local impacts of climate change.
In the interviews to sample #2, we will ask open-ended questions focusing on: 3) The crop diversity (plant species and landraces) in the village's homegardens a. We will list the crop species and landraces grown in the past (in the 50's-60's, before the green revolution) for food and income in the village's homegardens. This list will include the correspondence between the vernacular and Latin names of the botanical species, the ranking of crop species and landraces, and the origin of the landraces. Theses list can be done as well for one or two other very relevant agroecosystems for the people in the village (e.g., olive groves).
b. We will list the crop species and landraces currently grown for food and income in the village's homegardens. These lists can be done as well for one or two other very relevant agroecosystems for the people in the village (e.g., olive groves).
c. Based on a) and b), we will list the trends in crop diversity (changes from past to presently cultivated species and landraces) and explore if people link these changes to the previously reported LICCI (e.g., changes in soil, water, landscape, plants, insects, diseases…).
All these topics will be explored with the aid of a timeline (i.e., a piece of paper marking the relevant dates/events that everybody remembers) in order to better understand since when the interviewees have noticed these changes. In the timeline, we will mark some relevant events for the community and then try to mark the time when the interviewee started to notice the LICCI and the changes in crop diversity and management. We will also add to this timeline any significant event that affected the agroecosystems such as demographic or socio-economic changes that happened in the site. For more details on the interview guideline, see Appendix 1.
Each individual interview will add information on these topics until the sample goal is reached or information saturation is achieved (i.e., new interviewees do not add any new information). In the focus groups, the compiled information from the interviews (specifically the information that seems more controversial) will be confirmed and discussed, specifically focusing on:

Perceived local indicators of climate change impacts on agroecosystems (LICCI).
We will bring the most relevant and controversial LICCI we find and ask if there is any other climate change impact that has not been mentioned. We will also bring the timeline to validate the aggregated information from the interviews.

2)
Changes/trends in homegarden crop species/landraces over time. We will confirm the information on present and past crop species and landraces and the information from the aggregated timelines. We will also confirm the information about the causes/drivers of the changes noticed.
In case of continued sanitary emergency due to COVID-19 crisis (i.e., social distancing regulations), the focus groups will be substituted by a second round of confirmatory interviews, which can be done by telephone if needed.
The output of this data collection process will be: 1) A list of LICCI (looking specifically at LICCI affecting the agroecosystem elements).
2) A list of past and present cropping systems, management practices, crop species and landraces.
3) A list of crop diversity trends (changes comparing past and present crop species and landraces) and the drivers of these changes.

4) A timeline of how these events interrelate with each other and with other socio-economic and demographic changes in the area
These data will be processed and compiled using the LICCI app.
Y estos cambios, están relacionados con alguno de los cambios del medio natural que me ha comentado antes (por ejemplo, con los cambios en temperaturas, lluvias, ríos, suelos, insectos)? O fue por algún otro motivo? -Apuntar factores en Tabla 2 IMPORTANTE preguntar por los elementos de la tabla 3 del anexo. Para cada agroecosistema nos piden: -Location / topography: Describe where this type of field is usually located in the landscape, if relevant. Mention especially its location on the topographic gradient, proximity to water bodies, to households… -Soil description (Indicate if this type of field presents particular soil characteristics (fertility, color, texture, humidity). You can indicate the general soil category it belongs to if you have this information… Como decía, estamos mirando cosas que han cambiado en la agricultura y el medio natural de esta zona. Para entenderlo mejor, voy a usar una línea del tiempo (sacar papel continuo).